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What Scorsese Movie Has The Most Black People It?

Started by Dr Rock, April 03, 2021, 09:13:55 PM

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Dr Rock

I'm suggesting that he never puts them in his movies. Prove me wrong.

Magnum Valentino

Hmmmmmm.

I watched one the other day, Mean Streets. I don't think it had any black lads in it, but one was referred to by David Proval and he used, you know, the word.

chveik

think there's a black maid in The Wolf of Wall Street.

An tSaoi

Samuel L Jackson is in GoodFellas.

Sport in Taxi Driver was going to be black, but they hired Harvey Keitel to reduce the racial tension.

Inspector Norse

Scrolled through his films on IMDB now and the first black person I found was Anthony Anderson in The Departed who literally plays a character called "Brown".

Go a bit further back and there's Ving Rhames and Sonja Sohn and a couple of others in Bringing out the Dead, the one with Nicolas Cage as a crazy paramedic.

Blumf


Magnum Valentino

I apologise, Kietel fancies a black dancer in Mean Streets.


EOLAN

I am sure there were a few in Raging Bull. Just by dint of showing some of his opponents and their ringside people.

bgmnts

The Departed has a black lad in it. Raging Bull has a black lad in it.

I think Taxi Driver has a black lad in it and isn't the insane passenger's wife cheating on him with a black lad, who's silhouette is visible? Technically two.

Goodfellas has one.

Keebleman

Silence has loads of Japanese.  Do they count?

Chedney Honks


greenman

Quote from: EOLAN on April 04, 2021, 12:16:06 PM
I am sure there were a few in Raging Bull. Just by dint of showing some of his opponents and their ringside people.

Most obviously Sugar Ray Robinson but really the whole New Hollywood era it was very white male focused wasn't it?

St_Eddie

Quote from: EOLAN on April 04, 2021, 12:16:06 PM
I am sure there were a few in Raging Bull. Just by dint of showing some of his opponents and their ringside people.

Black and white film, innit.

dissolute ocelot

Doesn't everybody know the Irish are the (n-word) of Europe. And Italians one step up. In about 1920 his films would be very progressive.

Dusty Substance


The video to Michael Jackson's Bad directed by Scorsese  features a bunch of black guys. And Michael Jackson.


Keebleman

Quote from: Keebleman on April 04, 2021, 12:37:21 PM
Silence has loads of Japanese.  Do they count?

And then there's Kundun, which I haven't seen despite its enthusiastic recommendation by Christopher Moltisanti, who loved it.

El Unicornio, mang

I seem to remember New York, New York having a scene in a black jazz bar. His period Italian/Irish-American neighbourhood films are pretty realistic in their portrayal of racial mixing (ie none) though.

Dr Rock

Ooh, King Of Comedy. Rita. Proper major character speaking role too. Possibly other black people in it in the background also.

If you're counting his newer films, then Black Panther (2018) featured Chadwick Boseman as The Black Panther. Lots of supporting roles as well.

Old Nehamkin

This would probably make a handy line of attack for those Marvel obsessives on social media next time he is mildly disparaging about one of their billion-dollar baby films.

'Lack of substantial roles for black actors in their films' is a criticism that could be levelled at pretty much every major director of Scorsese's generation, we're talking De Palma, Coppola, Altman, Woody Allen, Bogdanovich, etc. except that over the last couple of years it's only really Scorsese that gets consistently singled out for it on the internet for some reason.

greenman

Quote from: Kermit the Frog on April 04, 2021, 03:58:05 PM
'Lack of substantial roles for black actors in their films' is a criticism that could be levelled at pretty much every major director of Scorsese's generation, we're talking De Palma, Coppola, Altman, Woody Allen, Bogdanovich, etc. except that over the last couple of years it's only really Scorsese that gets consistently singled out for it on the internet for some reason.

Really it was a pretty self obsessed era wasn't it? Allen had some female roles of substance I spose but it was mostly white mens angst from Easy Rider onwards.

El Unicornio, mang

I can get why a lot of writers/directors stick to what they know best (eg straight white working class men) though considering the flak they sometimes get when they try to depict anything other. I remember Spielberg getting a lot of criticism from some quarters when he made The Color Purple. With a few exceptions, Scorsese's most acclaimed work has been about neighbourhoods/characters he's familiar with.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

He tends to avoid casting black women in case De Niro tries to marry them.

chveik

Quote from: Kermit the Frog on April 04, 2021, 03:58:05 PM
'Lack of substantial roles for black actors in their films' is a criticism that could be levelled at pretty much every major director of Scorsese's generation, we're talking De Palma, Coppola, Altman, Woody Allen, Bogdanovich, etc. except that over the last couple of years it's only really Scorsese that gets consistently singled out for it on the internet for some reason.

i suppose it's because he's the only one still making films regularly. i'm not really aware of what's been said online about Scorsese in that regard, is it only because of the marvel thing?

St_Eddie

Hell hath no fury like a Marvel fanboy scorned.

An tSaoi


Quote from: chveik on April 04, 2021, 04:51:31 PM
i suppose it's because he's the only one still making films regularly. i'm not really aware of what's been said online about Scorsese in that regard, is it only because of the marvel thing?

Yeah that's a good point actually, he is the only one still operating with any kind of visibility. I suspect that it is because of the Marvel thing that it's become such a internet talking point though, as I remember quite a bit of chatter in various publications (not good ones) at the time he made his initial offhand statements where people posited that if Scorsese is taking it upon himself to shit on examples of poc and feminine excellence like Black Panther and Captain Marvel, why doesn't he do the work and support more filmmakers from diverse ethnic backgrounds? All this despite the existence of Scorsese's World Cinema Project, in which he does exactly that and more.

Quote from: greenman on April 04, 2021, 04:16:55 PM
Really it was a pretty self obsessed era wasn't it? Allen had some female roles of substance I spose but it was mostly white mens angst from Easy Rider onwards.

Oh 100%, one of the major shortcomings of that era for sure is pushing anyone who didn't fit that profile to the margins, despite the existence of real talent on the fringes of the industry.